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Nickols received a nine month sentence, suspended for two years, when he appeared at Coventry Crown Court on Thursday.

He was also handed 150 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £5,000 in prosecution costs.

Recorder Peter Ievins said: 'I'm satisfied you are a snake oil salesman, and I sentence you for the two of the offences on the indictment to which you have pleaded guilty, and for a summary-only offence.

Aaron O'Brian Nickols, 34, (pictured) boasted in advertisements that the machines were a 'revolutionary treatment' which promised to melt away fat for users with no exercise

'These are serious offences that cover a significant period of time. Large sums of money are involved, which afforded you a comfortable lifestyle.

'I am satisfied the devices were entirely sham.'

The court heard how the crook set up the UK Weight Loss Network in 2013 as a sole trader, after previously being prohibited from working as a financial advisor.

Nickols, who has county court judgements against him and was made bankrupt in 2011, placed false ads in newspapers for his 'cavitation' weight loss method.

Trading under the name Paul Jones, Nickols also denied customers their legal cancellation rights.

Pictured, Trading Standards officer Eleanor Lake holding the device

Despite trading in Rugby and Wolston, Nickols used false addresses, including an address in Manchester which was just a virtual post box.

Tony Watkin, prosecuting on behalf of Warwickshire Trading Standards, said: 'If they [customers] placed the device on fatty areas of their body, low frequency ultrasound would break the fat down, and waste fat would be excreted through urination.

'The defendant bought something in the order of 400 of them from a Chinese manufacturer via eBay, paying £170 for each.

THE RISE OF AUTOMATIC SLIMMING MACHINES...

Although in this case the device was designed to polish metal, the popularity of purpose-built slimming machines and 'ultrasonic liposuction' devices has grown and grown in recent years.

'Ultrasonic liposuction' machines are being sold for hundreds of pounds online but some medical professionals have questioned whether they really work.

Marshall Partington, an American plastic surgeon, said: 'Many of us see patients who have been disappointed with their results from this expensive technology and seek more aggressive and predictable results with suction assisted liposculpture.'

Another doctor Laura Sudarsky added: 'Ultrasonic cavitation damages the fat cells, but does not remove them as in traditional liposuction.

'You have multiple treatments, and will see minimal results.'

'It was suggested the advertised rental price of £49 a week was half price, although there's no evidence it was ever higher than that.

'The devices themselves were not safe, and were no subjected to safety tests and regulations when they were imported.

'They didn't meet electrical safety requirements, and on occasions overheated or were giving off electric shocks.

'A number of consumers had complained about the safety of the devices.

'One said it kept giving him shocks, another said it blew up when he turned it on, another said the head came undone, revealing the wires, and another said it was overheating hot enough to burn her skin.'

Nickols was contacted by Trading Standards, 'but he continued to fail to comply with the law', the court heard.

Since April he has refunded all but one customer who requested a refund.

Tim Pole, defending, said: 'There is a significant difference between fraudulent trading and the regulatory offences this defendant has pleaded guilty to, and which the prosecution have accepted.

'The key element, of course, is dishonesty and acting fraudulently, which is not present in the offences Your Honour has to deal with this defendant for.

'It seems obvious now in hindsight that those products provided little effect. He has ceased trading.'